Can I Live ? - The Sour Interview

The Skate Documentary "Sour: 4 Peace In The Middle East" brings together 9 skaters from Israel and Jordan, to try and answer the question: "what does an instrument of peace look like?" Filmed throughout the Middle East during the Israeli/Lebanon war of 2006, the doc brings together skate-rats from backgrounds divided by conflict and identities defined by enemies; ultimately demonstrating that the potential for peace is enormous but it requires a deeper connection and understanding. Skaters share a bond that transcends ideology, religion, phobias, and 'isms' you see and respect the person in front of you that shares your addiction. Skating is a common language that touches something deeper than all the fear and bullshit present in the world today. The site sums it up best,"In essence, 'Sour' is a film about doing the things you love with the people your not supposed to like." Recenently the Director/Producer of Sour, Nathan Gray, was gracious enough to give an Interview to Resort. Nathan is also the Executive Director of "The Bedouins.org" a non-profit working for the proliferation of peace and currently planning a 2011 tour of the US and beyond with some of the Skaters from the movie.
Thanks to Nathan, the Sour crew, and the Bedouins crew for the interview and the awesome photos.

R2C: Where did the idea for the Sour doc/project come from, and why useskateboarding as opposed to some other athletic/artistic medium? What did skating offer in connecting Israeli and Arab youth that other, more popular activities didn’t ?

For starters my roots are in Saudi Arabia because this is where I grew up and I first learned to skate. In the 5th grade the first Gulf War broke out and missiles were flying over our houses. We had to carry a gas mask to school and there were times in the beginning when explosions were going off and we had to wear them because we didn't know if Saddam had chemical weapons or not. At that age it was terrifying and it's hard to breath out of those masks.

Later in 2006 while studying Arabic in Jordan I met many talented and positive skaters from Amman. I started hanging out with them and we became very close friends, skating together almost every day at the Street of Cultures, a marble plaza that is a perfect spot. I also had the opportunity to travel West to TelAviv and Jerusalem where I met many talented Israeli skaters. I realized that these groups were less than 100 miles apart, shared the same passions, and yet because of the political situation had never met. My goal was to change this and to see if skateboarding could be used to start a relationship between these two groups.

R2C: What were the logistical difficulties in making this documentary?

It is easy for an Israeli to get a visa to Jordan. It is issued at the border and was free the first time because the Jordanian guards said they really liked the tricks we were doing. Actually the visa is free for everyone at this southern crossing but they were just being nice and we didn't know this so it all seemed a very good start to our trip. Unfortunately it is not possible for Jordanians to get a visa to skate in Israel.

R2C: Did you or the skaters involved ever face any hostility or resistance from people in either the Jordanian or Israeli community.

Well when we went to Hebron, Khalid took us to the best Kanafe place in all of Palestine. We were outside the cafe' waiting for Khalid and 2 local teenagers saw us. We obviously looked out of place and they asked Mohammed where he was from. He said Jaffa and the teenager immediately changed his expression, spit on the ground, and said that he would see us in hell. They kept staring at us menacingly but fortunately Khalid came out, we went to his car, and nothing came of it. Of course it sucks to realize that these teenagers wanted to start shit just cause of the city Mohammed was born in but that is the reality. This is what we are hoping to change.

A lighter story was when we got in a street fight in Tel Aviv because some kids called Tzahi a girl and they started making fun of him. We all went back to stick up for him, a punch was thrown and then a brawl started. I got punched in the jaw, Mohammed got his board taken but he got it back once he found a big stick and threatened to wack the kid in the head if he didn't give back the board. When the fight broke out Tzahi ran like a girl and didn't get involved so that was the funniest part about it. This shows that a lot of fights are random and usually start over stupid shit to begin with. Another time in Jerusalem I got a taxi with an American friend and I said Salam Al-Akum and then the taxi told us he doesn't take Arabs. It was bullshit and he started yelling at us to get out of his taxi so we found another one.

R2C: What are the skater’s views of the whole Israel/Arab conflict situation and do you think skating and the “Sour” experience helped in shaping those views?

Well this might be difficult to answer as there are many different views. I will say this though, while I am an optimist, I’d be lying if it was as simple or as easy as skating. Many of the skaters are reluctant to consider these cross-cultural skate sessions as “making peace” because they do not want to be viewed as ignoring the atrocities being committed by the other side. Likewise, some of the skaters view peace activism as contradictory to loyalty to their homeland. But they continue to skate.

R2C: I’ve always believed that skating is one of those activities that helps foster a fierce independent spirit in the participant, and encourages the development of a healthy amount of skepticism Do you see skating as a tool for change?

Skateboarding in its essence is about abolishing rules, flipping the script, and transforming something wasted and desolate like islands of concrete or road barriers into something positive. In this vein, skating is about transforming entrenched prejudices and misunderstandings.

R2C: How has the documentary been received in the Middle East region?

It has screened in Eilat, Israel as part of their film festival and many different people and cultures our excited about the premise of this film. However, at the same time it is hard to have a peace film that attempts to be unbiased and accepting of both sides without upsetting some people. There are those that are not ready to start a relationship with the other and so they are not supportive of the mission of this film. They are against it in principle and feel that peace translates into complacency. But this is not my intention as I have always felt that instead of sitting back and complaining we have to do something positive even if gets misinterpreted by others. After 9/11 I felt utterly sad and confused. One of the reasons was that my countrymen were both the attackers and the attacked. At a loss as to how to reconcile this internal conflict, in 2002, I set off alone on a dirt bike from Saudi Arabia to Greece. This trip was an eye opener for me and changed my life. It gave me hope that there are peaceful and generous people everywhere and that we don't have to feed into the cycle of violence if we don't want to.

R2C: Where do the Palestinians hail from in the region?

Because there are so many Palestinians in Jordan many of the skaters involved are Palestinian but not living in Palestine, essentially refugees. When we do the US tour I would like to include at least one Palestinian living in the West Bank so as to broaden our group's perspective. Obviously it is very different living in Occupied Palestine than living outside it. In 2009 one of the Israeli skaters asked me if we could go to Ramallah because he knew that I went into Palestine often and that I had friends there who could take care of us even though he is Jewish. I made some calls and we ended up going into Palestine with 2 of the Israeli skaters. It was the wildest trip I have been on and I wished that I filmed more of it but we were so excited and nervous that filming was not at the front of our mind. In the village of Beit Omar we saw an Israeli soldier yelling at some people with a grenade in his hand while we drove past in the taxi. We got to skate outside the church in Bethleham where Tzahi did a rock and roll on an old roman pillar and Mohammed did a boardslide on it.

R2C: Are the Occupied Territories skateable?

Yes – see the attached photos.

R2C: I’ve read on the Bedouins site that there are plans for an Arab/Israeli skate tour in 2011, what information can you give me about that?

We are officially launching theBedouins.org with an event called “Yallah! Artivism for Peace”, a collaboration of skate art, video, photo and music. The Seattle show was the first of a series of events meant to raise money to bring the Muslim and Jewish skaters to the United States next summer for a national skate tour intended to share alternative perspectives of the Middle East using a grassroots approach. If you would like to be involved in this tour in any way please email us at peace@thebedouins.org

R2C: How can those interested see the documentary?

The easiest way to get a copy of Sour is to visit reframecollection.org

R2C: How can interested folks lend a hand and get involved with the organization and the documentary project?

As we are fairly new and very grassroots we welcome all the help we can get at this stage. Our big needs are artists willing to collaborate with us because art shows and artistic expression go hand in hand with what our project is about. We are also looking for people that have the connections to organize these shows or host them, as this helps us get the word out.

* Next Week We'll Have More From Nathan About Taking The Skate Trip Into The Occupied Territories. -Stay Tuned Channel 7 Plan 9........................

son of sweet punk videos...

Dunno if I'd posted this one before, but yeah... the saints were something else.



crucifix from the target video.



Born Against Live set. awesome.
enjoy.

Long Live The Old Man...

Yes, yes, yes- there's something to be said for the woods and for beauty and peace and accepting one's place in the world around... but there are other forces at work in the world of man. This is what happens when you look into the palantir.



Hassan I Sabbah.


Burroughs Documentary from 1984.

FROST

Robert Frost is an easy dude to right off when you're young and hungry for experience, smirking at the books on your parent's shelf. As time goes by however, you catch up, suddenly all the poems about scoring heroin and being wasted and lonely seem kind of empty. Frost is a guy you gotta right off in order to eventually understand, you gotta see the emptiness and arbitrary experience in suffering for sufferings sake. It's really only then you can start to appreciate the folks who sought peace with themselves and the world around them. In the tradition of all the ancient Japanese and Chinese poets, he sees how much is reflected internally through an experience with the natural world, he gets past the duality until it's all one body, one memory. So in honor of all that and the approach of Autumn, here' my favorite Poem by Frost.


Birches

When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy's been swinging them.
But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay.
Ice-storms do that. Often you must have seen them
Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning
After a rain. They click upon themselves
As the breeze rises, and turn many-coloured
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells
Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust
Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away
You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.
They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,
And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed
So low for long, they never right themselves:
You may see their trunks arching in the woods
Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground,
Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.
But I was going to say when Truth broke in
With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm,
I should prefer to have some boy bend them
As he went out and in to fetch the cows--
Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,
Whose only play was what he found himself,
Summer or winter, and could play alone.
One by one he subdued his father's trees
By riding them down over and over again
Until he took the stiffness out of them,
And not one but hung limp, not one was left
For him to conquer. He learned all there was
To learn about not launching out too soon
And so not carrying the tree away
Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise
To the top branches, climbing carefully
With the same pains you use to fill a cup
Up to the brim, and even above the brim.
Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,
Kicking his way down through the air to the ground.
So was I once myself a swinger of birches.
And so I dream of going back to be.
It's when I'm weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
From a twig's having lashed across it open.
I'd like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
May no fate wilfully misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:
I don't know where it's likely to go better.
I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree~
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

Can I Live. Pt. 2 "Proliferation"

Like hippies seeking vibes, Christians seeking the souls of godless natives, or buccaneers seeking plunder, since the early days of "plan on wheels" skaters have roamed the lord's green pastures and Lucifer's dark alleys in search of skateable spots. Back in the days of "Red Dawn", fear of the communist hordes did not keep American skaters from slipping behind the iron curtain and shredding Latvian hillsides. Most recently a group of skaters snuck under the radar into Cuba and gave away 200+ boards to folks there who, were definitely suffering from a lack of equipment and on top of that, harassment by Cuban cops for engaging in an "activity of the enemy" (Mission Skatepossible) . And there it is, no room for skating either way, the gov frowns on it, the Superpower restricts the resources necessary to engage in it, but kids have been and still are skating anyway, just like everywhere in the world. Skating like great art, changes the perception of the observer and when perception is altered an internal shift often occurs as well. Skating (again like good art) can lead to the development of a fierce independent streak, a healthy disregard for authority, and a fine tuned bullshit detector.
There are fierce and ruthless forces currently at work to keep people separated and dependent on the minority that hold all the money and power. The tools of separation at their disposal are endless, ethnicity, religion, culture, history, all these can be exploited to keep people fighting and divided. Skating can lead not only to the questioning of this propaganda but also to the outright rejection of it by direct experience. Getting together and skating with others or just observation through mags and media, allows people to connect on a level deeper and more subjective then social and cultural prejudices and grievences.
The Dali Lama was onece asked what advice he could give on how to resolve the Israeli/Arab conflict. He responded "Throw more parties." Let people get together, relate to eachother as individuals hanging out, and peace will prosper. So, in honor of throwing more parties, and sessioning around the worlf, here are a number of links to groups using skateboarding to help impoverished youth, bring kids from conflict zones together, and just info on skate scenes all over this bouncing blue marble.

SKATEISTAN - Skateistan is one of the dopest nonprofits since Medecins San Fronteirs. The organization got its start when some Aussies working for a development organization in Kabul Afghanistan brought their boards. Skating around the abandoned Olympic pool (which under the Taliban had been a site for executions) they soon attracted large groups of Afghan kids, who in the world's second poorest country, broken from 30+ years of war, had little opportunity to play and be kids. What started as just getting kids together to skate, have fun and build confidence, has lead to the construction of the first Kabul skate park as well as an attached school. In order to earn skate time kids gotta attend the school. They bring together kids from all different ethnicity's (all of which have a shared history of conflict against each other) and teach both genders. This gives kids the opportunity to connect and play without all the baggage of cultural and social identities. Their site has tons of examples of all the awesome shit going on including a soon to be released documentary.

The Uganda Skateboard Union - There is a skate park in Uganda and a scene of inspired skaters surrounding it and this is their website. Currently I think their repairing and adding to the park while continuing to shred East Africa. Tons of photos and great posts available on the website.

Skate Arabia - A skater run blog breaking down the skate scene throughout the Middle East and North Africa. A wealth of information and cool photos/articles. This is a really well organized and run page and incredibly interesting. So here's what I propose, we fly into Rabat and work our way across North Africa by land skating everything until we hit Muscat, that my friends would be a real war on terrorism.

Skatenacion - Well run, slick page dealing with all things skating in Colombia (where I was told that if I rode my board down the street I'd immediately get it stolen). In Spanish but can be translated.

Skate Malaysia - All the things going down with Skating in Malaysia as well as info and links to skating in other countries in the region.

Sour (a documentary) "Sour" is a skate documentary about "nine skaters from Israel and Jordan jumping borders and cultural barriers to share a united passion for skating and life." It has been making the film circuit both in the states and abroad and is an incredible testament to the power of skating and its possibility as a tool for change. The creators of Sour were gracious enough to sit down for an interview with Resort to Cannibalism that will be posted soon. Till then check out this site.

The Bedouins.org The Bedouins is a site dedicated to using art and skateboarding to advocate for peace. It is run by the creators of "Sour" and gives updates and information on various events related to the documentary or put on by the organization. They are looking for galleries, etc, interested in participating. Check em out.

Bridge To Skate - Like Skateistan "Bridge to Skate is a humanitarian organization that uses skateboarding and play to aid in the creation of life skills, promotion of health, fostering of peace, and the education of cultural differences internationally." It is currently operating in Honduras with hopes to spread to other countries

All these sites have links to a ton of other awesome information and are worth exploring if your interested. Also check out The Gaza Surf Club for a group doing similar things but with surfing in the fucking Gaza strip. Also stay tuned to R2C for an interview I did with the makers of the Sour documentary.

Can I Live. Pt. 1

"What my dead friends give me is the power to say, 'it's six thirty in the morning dude, whom I skating for? I'm Skating for all those who can't. And why am I doing it? Because the motherfuck I can."

My childhood was blessed. I grew up surrounded by mountains and miles of undeveloped wilderness. Anytime that wasn't taken from me was spent in the woods, climbing, running, swimming and camping. With no real limits to chip away at you except for the big ones, existing internally and in the natural world; loosley translated: "either you can do it or you can't". As we grew older the consequences of "you can't" increased, so that finding out "you can't" do something could often result in "you're gonna get fucked up." But that's how it is with young men, we weren't completely reckless but we were desperate to test our limits and find out how far we could push them.

I liked skating before even trying it. I liked the idea of moving fast through the streets and towns of the civilized world, pushing and shredding like some creature from the wilderness let loose to reek havoc and tear through the villages. The civilized world and its pressures were almost too intense, and in a way shit like punk rock and skating became the tools for beating back the forces that jockey for control. Maybe that sounds a little cliche, but most true statements do. It wasn't all struggle and strife though, skating around with my best friend after school , getting crunk on caffeine and and hanging out.

The seeds planted during these early experiences came to full bloom when I moved to the city. I was miserable and felt pretty isolated even though I had some friends to keep my head above water. After my roommate copped a few complete, barely used boards from the Salvation Army, skating evolved from something I did sometimes as a teenager to a revelation. Like being set loose in the woods as a kid, skating changed how I interacted with my environment, an errand was an excuse for motion, to push and keep pushing and see if you make it to point "b" in one piece.

I spent time moving around between the states, the city, and Vermont. I also got out of America whenever time and resources allowed, travelling for many of the same reasons that compelled me into the woods, or onto a board, a broad curiosity that functioned with a force close to the heaviest of addictions.

Wherever I'd end up, traveling or living, I'd see the landscape with a skater's eye and feel the desire to push down every street and walkway, known and unknown. In Aguas Calientes Ecuador I chased some locals three blocks to let me ride their shattered, old school, shark fin, deck. It creaked under my sneakers like colonial floorboards but it fed the need for a little while. By the time we reached Cuenca I was infested with the need for a board and so we bought a cheap quality complete, which was the best you could get at the time. In order to get a decent deck kids in countries like Ecuador had to order them online or through the only existing skate shop in the capital.

It was cheap with about the corniest graphics ever, but we didn't cut it any slack and it stood up to the beating. Strapped onto my rucksack we traveled into the country, staying at a guest house that sat above a tiny pueblo in the Andean foothills. Bonding with some traveling surfers we spent hours bombing the scarred road that ran down the hill into the center of down, quickly discovering that bailing often meant a sketchy combination of open wounds and donkey shit. We'd skate all afternoon, playing with the village kids who would ride the board like a toboggan down the lower part of the hill; heel dragging in flip flops to a stop, and then collapsing into a pile of giggles. The kids would materialize outta the surrounding landscape of jungle and subsistence farms, running down the jagged road for as long as they could keep up. The "crack!" of slapping plastic flip flops and the calls of slower siblings, a joyous avalanche rushing the narrow riverbed and resting on the outskirts of town. Through the kids we got invited to meet the families and spent a few afternoons sharing a snack and getting glimpse of lives composed primarily of hard work love, and more work.

Continuing that way, with the board strapped to the rucksack, skating old colonial plazas, avoiding the specters of restless conquistadors and the loafers of elderly observers. In Cuzco we bombed Andean roadways of Incan and Spanish construction, riding in the rain gutters when the cobblestone got too raw. In Cuzco, Arequipa, wherever the board came out we met little shoeshine street kids, metal heads, artists, and others. The board held out, the cops were nice, and I rode beneath the southern cross in the chill mountain air. Eventually I gave the board to the daughters of the woman who managed the hotel we were staying in; with hopes they'd grow up to be bad ass little independent ladies, or at least enjoy pushing each other around the lobby while their mom worked all day.

Six Months later I was riding through the streets of Hamburg and then Denmark on a much nicer board I'd bought at a Roma flea market in Germany for 15 Euros. I'd skate to the coffee shop in the morning and then push down sidewalks and winding old world streets for hours with the walkman on.

Riding through all these unknown places dripping with history, headphones blaring some Clash, wheels clicking on the marble, granite, tar, 'crete, cobblestone and dirt. The board was a power item, it was sudden escape, it was mathematical formula for possibility, a gateway to instinct in planned environments. All the bullshit, the modern curses and traps that lack the creativity of ancient times, the quick dart to the jugular, it all falls away, under the urethane, in the cold night air, skating the pier as the city lights come under the gray evening sky of early spring. Like all the summer nights, through the city's grid work, long after midnight, just empty ghosts of traffic jams and drunks too gone to make it home, swallowed by an ocean of street.

How Buildings Learn.

Stewart Brand seems like a pretty interesting fellow. He's a writer and thinker dealing a lot with environmental sustainability and the question of time in regard to the earth and humankind. I'll probably post some of his lectures to The Long Now Foundation at some point which deal with the urbanization of the world and ways we might sustain the planet and it's people through the next 10,000 years, but today I'm going to keep it a bit more loose and show you a few of the more lighthearted videos he made about architcture.

The videos below are what introduced me to Stewart Brand. They comprise his series "How Buildings Learn" and mostly deal with how time and people wear and evolve the spaces we live in. I know it sounds dry, but these are really interesting and if you have a bit of time you should check them out... I mean, if you're reading this you probably have some manner of relationship with man made structures... anyway...
enjoy.



Part One.


Part Two.


Part Three.


Part Four.


Part Five.


Part Six.

Play It Fasterrr...

I've been listening to a bit of ministry lately and revisited the Pailhead ep. (which was ministry with Ian MacKaye.) I was always curious as to how that ep. came about and with a little searching found this...


"Ian MacKaye: I met Al at a studio in London in 1986 or so. He told me that he was getting into “hardcore,” which struck me as odd considering that Ministry, up to that point, was a college dance music band. It was also at a time when I was in the band Embrace, which was moving away from what many people considered “hardcore” at the time. He asked me if I wanted to sing on one of the tracks he was working on (he recorded a lot of music, and as he finished each piece he would decide what project-name he would release it under). At first, I didn’t think there was a chance I would do it, but when he played me the track (it would become “I Will Refuse”), I was pretty knocked out by it. I actually wrote the lyrics in an hour or two and did the vocals that night. It was partly inspired by the struggle with the major label that had signed Ministry at the time (Warner Bros.?), but like almost all of my songs spread out to cover a lot of different things by the time I was done writing. I didn’t really know in what form this song would be released, or if it would be released for that matter, but I liked what we came up with. A month or two later, Al asked me to come to Chicago to record a second song that would be used as a B-side to “I Will Refuse.” So I went out there and wrote and recorded “No Bunny” with him and Ion (Paul) Barker from Ministry and revolting Cocks, and a guy named Eric (whose last name I can’t remember at the moment) who played drums for Naked Raygun. I came up with the name Pailhead for the project and it was decided that it would be released with no name or pictures or information. This is not because we were ashamed to be connected to the music, or each other, but because it seemed cooler to do it that way. A year or so later, I went back to Chicago for a second e.p., and eventually all six songs we recorded were released on a single CD. I haven’t spoken with Al for many years, but I really enjoyed working with him and found him to be a sweet and brilliant studio producer."

Read the full interview here. (ps. it is pretty sweet.)

Resort To Cannibalism Mix Two.

Summertime for me is usually about staying up ridiculously late... This mix is for just that...

Resort To Cannibalism Mix Two.

1. Nico - Frozen Warnings
2. Eno, Mobius and Roedelius - The Belldog
3. The Clash - Ghetto Defendant
4. J.J. Burnell - Euroman
5. Dome - Ritual View
6. Talking Heads - Seen And Not Seen
7. Gun Club - Promise Me
8. the Knife - The Captain
9. DAF - Ich Und Die Wirklichkeit
10. Circle - Understanding New Age
11. Glass Candy - I Always Say Yes
12. Swans - Blood Promise
13. Einsturzende Neubauten - Youme & Meyou
14. the Homosexuals - Hearts In Exile
15. New Order - Mesh
16. Wire - A Mutual Friend
17. the Pop Group - She Is Beyond Good And Evil
18. Brian Eno - Spider And I

enjoy.

All in the name of liberty...

hell yes.

more videos.

The Ex & Brass Unbound - UK Tour - Long from Mintonfilm on Vimeo.



born under punches.



Who are you?

Sweet Mix Tapes...

One of the things I liked most about growing up on a mountain was that I would have to drive to get just about anywhere... This could also present a few problems I suppose, like if you were late for work or had no car or money for gas... or your liscense got suspended...  but yeah... for the most part, I would usually be as psyched for the commute as I would be to get to wherever I was trying to go...

Before ipods and all of this business nerds like me used to roll around with like 15 cds on the passenger seat, just to be sure that whatever mood the day would bring could be complimented or compensated for by some kindof song... In those days for me it was pretty much the clash, the jam, billy bragg, outkast and a box of sweet mix tapes.

Driving, of course is the perfect excuse for making mixes... The other best excuses were crushes and good friends... But there's something special about getting into the car and testing out a new tape, and I would have to make new ones every few weeks because I was spending all of my money on records in hopes of someday making THEE best mixtape ever...

It usually took me about 3 hours to put together a 90 minute tape because I would have to test the levels before every song and would almost certainly have a few false starts or halfway through the third song I'd realize that the first song should be something different...  I think I took it a bit too seriously... But I would always come out feeling like I was that much closer to making the perfect mix... the ultimate... the omega...  The holy grail of sweet mixtapes...As I get older I'm beginning to realize that the ultimate best ever mixtape probably will never exist... But sometimes you make one that's perfect for the time... and I guess that's as much as you can ask for...

This mix isn't "the ultimate", BUT it does fucking rule and is the first of many more to come.
love,
  alex.

RESORT TO CANNIBALISM MIX ONE

1.  Ivy Green - I'm sure we're gonna make it
2.  The dB's - Black and white
3.  Dieter Meier - Cry for fame
4.  Weirdos - Life Of Crime
5.  Frustration - Relax
6.  The Saints - No Time
7.  The Germs - What we do is secret
8.  Discharge - A look at tomorrow
9.  Calvary - Heart Murmur
10. Agent Orange - Bloodstains
11. Brats - Heavy Rocker
12. The Eat - Communist Radio
13. The Victims - Television Addict
14. Tröckener Kecks - De Gifbeker
15. Purple Hearts - Can't Stay Here
16. Archers - Brussells Truffles
17. The Shitty Limits - Transitions
18. Reigning Sound - I'll Cry
19. The Kids - I wanna Get A Job In The City
20. Tristess - Falck
21. Elton Motello - Jet Boy, Jet Girl

enjoy.

Bad Brains were fucking awesome.

"...Then my man Sid came over my crib with all these different records: Dead Boys, Ramones, No New York [the compilation], and the Sex Pistols. And he came with those four albums in his hand, knocked on my door one day with a suit jacket on with some safety pins and shit all over it, and I looked through the peephole, and I said, “What the fuck’s this motherfucker doing?” He looked like someone beat him up. He was all ripped up like a bomb blew up and shit. He was my man, but he had seen the Sex Pistols on PBS or something and ran off uptown where the white people live near the university and went to the record store and bought all these records. Then he came over my house, “Yo, check out all this shit.” And that shit! Wow! The first thing I thought was, “If these motherfuckers think they making some shit playing fast, then watch this!” So it was almost like the Beastie Boys when they first started, making fun of rap but kind of got serious. You know, it was like satire to them. Well to me, when I first heard punk rock, being a dude that was open-minded and into Return to Forever, the first thing I thought was, “If the Ramones think they’re playing fast, and if they think that they’re playing some hot shit, watch this shit that I’m going to rip, listen to this riff that I’m going to make and how fast I play this shit ’cause I got Return to Forever that I’ve been feeling that’s really technical,” and I thought, “I’ll work me some jazz riffage around this punk shit.” So it was like a sort of competitive thing I had with punk to make the Bad Brains music so fast and kind of like how on “Sailing On” ends with the jazzy thing and all that."

Darryl Jenifer of Bad Brains from THIS interview.
pretty cool.
I was trying to see if there was a demo of Mind Power which was the prog/jazz/fusion band the bad brains had before they found punk.
I love hearing stories of how people first got into punk rock and got their worlds turned upside down.
word.

oh, and ps. I don't think there are any tapes of Mind Power...
but if I'm somehow mistaken and you have a copy, please let me know... kindof curious as to how it sounds...
word.

International Thief Thief!!!!

So there's this Fela song called ITT about this corporation that was up to some shady business in Nigeria in the 70s... Naturally, I was kindof curious about what their deal was and today I decided to wiki them.

Among horrid things like financing Pinochet and the overthrow of the chilean government in the 70s, we have this little gem...


"According to Anthony Sampson's book The Sovereign State of ITT, one of the first American businessmen Hitler received after taking power in 1933 was Sosthenes Behn, then the CEO of ITT and his German representative, Henry Mann. Antony C. Sutton, in his book Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler, makes the claim that ITT subsidiaries made cash payments to SS leader Heinrich Himmler.
ITT, through its subsidiary The Lorenz Company, owned 25% of Focke-Wulf, the German aircraft manufacturer, builder of some of the most successful Luftwaffe fighter aircraft. In the 1960s, ITT Corporation won $27 million in compensation for damage inflicted on its share of the Focke-Wulf plant by WWII Allied bombing.^[3] In addition, Sutton’s book uncovers that ITT owned Huth and Company, G.m.b.H. of Berlin, which made radio and radar parts that were used in equipment going to the Wehrmacht."


dude, 27 million dollars...
to nazi collaborators...
in the 60s...
I would have figured people would still have been pretty sore about WW2 in those days.
what in the fuck is that about?


my guess is that they had some super defense technology or something and they were like "we'll give it to the russians..."
I mean really though...
what the fuck is wrong with people?

Still looking for it...

America changed the clash... An interesting love/hate relationship for sure... Being so english...
anyway...

I'm wondering if the late 70s and early 80s were as exciting as they look on television or sound on records...
I don't know if people were more bored and frustrated back then or if it was that punk just rewrote the rules or that record companies were still willing to give bands money to try and do something exciting or whatever... It seems to me that music from this time sounds new... like uncharted territory... people must have been psyched...

but like, when this came out had anyone heard anything like it before?



I dunno...

not too much new music excites me... most of the stuff that does sounds old... like it could have been made in another time... when shit was still real...
Is my affinity for this music based partly on the fact that it was made in a different time under a different set of circumstances and different rules? Is this part of some escapist, false reality I immerse myself in to medicate my dissatisfaction with my life and the current state of the universe I know?
I dunno...

I mean, reality is still reality... back then the world portrayed by the media was very thin... now we have this and everyone's story can be heard which is good, but it's also like... maybe too much?
too much information...
everything is equally important...
nothing is real.
it's awesome and it's really fucking with me at the same time...

What kindof society will we have when people never knew a world without the internet?
where little is tangible and everything is an abstract...

it's everything you want at your fingertips but none of it is real...
and you're never satisfied because there's always more...

Do I feel like everything's been done because it has and I don't have to try too hard to find out about it?
Is that the other side of having access to so much information? Is it making art lazy or forcing people to try harder? kindof hard to tell...

Even my questioning it is totally cliched...
But I suppose there can't be a definitive answer... so...
whatever...
fuck it.
; )

Holy Shit (Old Friends Make Great Music) Social Circkle In TX

Faith / Void

This record is pretty amazing... Did not know there was a video. ; )
(ps. there are a few more on youtube as well... wishing I could get the whole show, but I'm a bit broke...)
anyway, enjoy this...



Notice alec mackaye's insane faces between sentences, the crowd's wild energy and john from void jumping around... I bet that show was fucking intense...

I just met her?

This is the first flipper song I'd ever heard back in the day on this comp. tape from the first 10 years of ROIR records... I heard a few great bands for the first time when I listened to that tape...
here's another:



and another...


hell yeah...